Concern for a Student

If you know a student experiencing distress, share with them that seeking help can help and that they don't have to go through what they're experiencing without support. Falcons Care. 

Faculty, staff and/or fellow students can offer to help the student in need call, email or visit our office in person for assistance. We know it's not always easy to connect people with counseling and resources so our counselors are available to consult with faculty, staff or students about how to help someone they're concerned about get support. Feel free to call us for advice! 

Remind the students that counseling is completely voluntary and if it's not helpful, or isn't what they are looking for, they can opt out at any point in the process. Faculty and staff, when you discuss a counseling referral with a student, it would be helpful for the student to hear your concerns in a clear and concise manner and why you think counseling would be helpful.

Faculty, staff and students: consult with a counselor at 715-425-3884.

Students can make an appointments Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Schedule an appoint by emailing counseling.services@uwrf.edu, calling 715-425-3884 or visiting 254 Rodli Hall. 

Counseling Services provides confidential consultations to parents on how to help a student in distress, how to refer a student to counseling and how to locate appropriate treatment or mental health care for your student, as well as other issues that come up in the course of being a concerned parent.

You may access Counseling Services by calling 715-425-3884 and asking to speak with a counselor regarding your particular concerns. Please be aware that Counseling Services is prevented by law from sharing (even with a concerned parent) any information about a student's contact with Counseling Services without a student's permission.

Our staff recognizes that this may be difficult in many situations. You are welcome to share your own concerns with a counselor and ask the counselor any question you may have about the nature and limits of confidentiality or the services we might provide for your student.

Academic/Work Signs:

• Deterioration in quality of work
• Missing assignments or appointments
• Not attending classes

Physical or Emotional Signs:

• Tearfulness, sadness, anxiety
• Trouble eating or sleeping
• Withdrawing from friends and/or social activities
• Loss of interest in hobbies, work, school
• Feelings of emptiness
• Increased use of alcohol/drugs
• Anger, irritability
• Physical ailments: headaches, nausea, abdominal pain
• Emails or phone conversations that have themes of hopelessness, social isolation, rage or despair.

Please consult with Counseling Services at 715-425-3884

Get Help Immediately If You Notice:

• Acting out of control, confused
• Talking openly about wanting to die
• Taking unnecessary or life threatening risks

It can be difficult to see your loved one in distress, but talking to your student shows that you care even if your student has difficulty accepting your concern.

Here’s how you can help:

• Be honest and express your concerns. Talk about the changes you have seen in them. Listen and offer emotional support, understanding and patience
• Convey the message that the student’s distress is real, common and treatable
• Offer to help them get assistance.
• Maintain regular contact.
• Help them contact Counseling Services or a helping professional in your community.
• Consult with Counseling Services at 715-425-3884.

In An Emergency

If your student needs help or is feeling unsafe, please contact one of the following:

• Call 911 or University Police at 715-425-3133
• UWRF Counseling Services: 715-425-3884, open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday
   

Other Helpful Phone Numbers

Health Concerns: UWRF Student Health Services, 715-425-3293

Living/Residential Concerns: UWRF Residence Life, 715-425-4555 or reslife@uwrf.edu

Books

• College of the Overwhelmed: the Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It Richard Kadison, Theresa Foy DiGeronimo, 2004
• Letting Go (Fifth Edition): A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger
• Don't Tell Me What To Do: Just Send Money. Helen Johnson and Christine Schelhas-Miller, 2000
• You're On Your Own (But I'm Here If You Need Me): Mentoring Your Child During the College Years by Marjorie Savage, 2009
• The iConnected Parent: Staying Close to Your Kids in College (and Beyond) While Letting Them Grow Up by Barbara K. Hofer and Abigail Sullivan Moore, 2010

Links

• College Parents of America
• College Health Guide for Parents

Openly acknowledging to students that you are aware of their distress, sincerely concerned about their welfare and willing to help them explore alternative responses, can have a profound and positive effect. We encourage you, whenever possible, to speak directly and honestly with a student when you sense that he/she is in emotional distress.

When you are directly involved with a student experiencing distress we recommend the following:

• Request to see the student in private. This may help minimize embarrassment and defensiveness.
• Briefly acknowledge your observations and perceptions of their situation.
• Express your concerns directly and honestly.
• Listen carefully and try to see the issues from the student's point of view without necessarily agreeing or disagreeing.
• Attempt to identify the problem. You can help by exploring with the student alternative responses to their present distress.
• Inappropriate and strange behavior should not be ignored. Comment on what you have observed, but not in a judgmental way.
• Involve yourself only as far as you feel comfortable and competent. Counseling Services staff and other professionals on the campus are available to assist you.

If you are unsure of how to work with a specific distressed student, we encourage you to consult with one of the counselors on our staff. Once you contact us, a counselor will be made available to you for consultation immediately or very soon thereafter. Office hours are 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call us at 715-425-3884, inform the receptionist who you are and ask to speak with a personal counselor. A brief consultation may help you sort out the relevant issues and explore alternative approaches.

The decision to refer a student to Counseling Services is first based upon your own observations (i.e., does the student show signs and symptoms of emotional distress?).

While each student experiences emotional distress in a different way, some common indicators you might observe include:

• Expressed suicidal thoughts or attempts
• High levels of irritability including undue aggressive or abrasive behavior expressed towards you or others
• Lack of energy
• Marked change in personal hygiene
• Bizarre or strange behavior
• Sadness, tearfulness
• Frequent binge eating episodes or extreme loss of appetite
• Dependency, e.g., the student who hangs around your office or makes excessive appointments to see you
• Infrequent class attendance and inadequate effort put into the assignments
• Falling asleep in class
• Lack of enthusiasm about various aspects of student life
• Unusual bruises or lacerations on face and/or body

Contact University Police at 715-425-3133 if:

• You are seriously concerned about a student’s safety.
• A student informs you that he/she has taken an overdose or committed a suicidal gesture.
• You are concerned about a student’s safety and he/she refuses to go to Counseling Services or if the Counseling Services office is closed..

Counselors are under ethical and legal obligations not to release confidential information. They cannot tell faculty or staff members when a student is receiving counseling services. Counselors may listen to information you want to share with them about a student, but may only provide you with information about him or her with the student's written permission. The only exception is when the student presents a danger to self or others.

If you refer a student to a UWRF personal counselor, you'll be notified that the student did attend an initial appointment only if the student gives written permission to do so. If you'd like more information about a student's contact with Counseling Services, you can directly ask the student. The student can then make a decision about how much to reveal to you.